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Possibility of ritual liturgical expression
This study is a theological study reflecting on ritual liturgical expression in cyberspace, viewed from the perspective of cyber cemeteries. Therefore, the field sites used in the participant observation must enable the researcher to reflect on the core theme of the research. Initially 27 field sites were identified as potential areas of inquiry and participant observation. As the aim of this thesis is to explore the depth of ritual liturgical expression in cyberspace, the field sites needed to be narrowed down. The researcher made the choice that a maximum of five primary field sites (therefore excluding any irregular or ex post facto observations) were to be observed. In curbing the initially identified field sites a list of criteria was used that includes:
1. The primary interaction observed at the field site must be of a Christian94 nature.
2. The interaction at the field site must at some point make reference to rituals or ritual liturgical expression as it is performed in the corporeal dimension; this might include something as simple as a prayer to something as complex as a Tenebrae service.
With the requirements mentioned above, nine of the initial field sites were removed from the potential list of field sites to be studied. These sites either made little or no mention of anything relating to religion or Christianity or were explicitly atheistic or agnostic, and had the character of an “anti-liturgy”. With the initial 27 sites measured according to the requirement of a possibility of ritual liturgical expression, the remaining sites were ethically evaluated.
Ethical framework
The remaining 18 field sites were analysed according to the ethical considerations discussed earlier95 in the thesis. The primary concern was to be as transparent96 as possible when studying death and bereavement in cyberspace, and therefore field sites that required the researcher to push the boundaries of ethical research were discarded as potential field sites to study. Specific attention was given to the following aspects based on the work of Sofka, Gibson and Silberman (2017), Bassett (2015), Cann (2014), Carmack and de Groot (2014), Pitsillides, Waller and Fairfax (2013), Kasket (2012), Phillips (2011):
• Specific attention was given to using the data gathered from the field sites in a respectful manner. Even though Facebook pages are public spaces and therefore public field sites, a deliberate choice was made to ask for consent in the cases where this was possible. These cases included field sites where the actual field site is the Facebook page of a living person. In the cases where the field site was the Facebook page of a deceased person, the same ethical and respectful use of data was applied but the “owner” of the page could not be contacted for consent. In the cases where a field site was memorialised, the legacy contact97 was approached for consent. On this point alone a further eight potential field sites were discarded. Two of the potential field sites were memorialised; in the first case the legacy contact refused the researcher access to study the specific field site, and in the second case the legacy contact did not respond to the request. Two potential field sites had living “owners” who did not respond to the research request and were therefore discarded, and a further four potential field sites had deceased owners, but the researcher deemed the content of the pages as too sensitive98 and therefore discarded them as potential field sites.
• Specific attention was given to limit researcher lurking where possible. To minimise the lurking factor in doing ethnography in cyberspace, the researcher made the choice to observe field sites that already formed part of his current network. Therefore, no friend requests99 were made with the purpose of studying the page of a random person. As mentioned in the previous bullet point, the relevant communication was also delivered to cases where it was applicable.
• Specific attention was given to the emotional impact of the research on the researcher. This was a crucial aspect in the identification of the field sites to be studied. Based on previous experience,100 the researcher explicitly avoided field sites where the researcher had a vested interest. Based upon this requirement, a further two potential field sites were removed from the remaining ten sites. Both these field sites belonged to close relatives or friends of the researcher who had passed away close to the start or during the period that the empirical research was conducted. Relating to this aspect, one field site was chosen and forms part of the five field sites that were studied. This field site is that of a close friend of the researcher, but was chosen as the person passed away in 2009 and therefore judged by the researcher as emotionally safe to study. A last aspect considered regarding the emotional influence of the research on the researcher was field sites with a context of a violent or cruel death. The choice was made that field sites based on deaths of this kind are not to be studied as the emotional toil would prove unhealthy.
Eight potential field sites were left that complied with the criteria in their theological and ethical nature. As stated earlier, a maximum of five field sites were allowed for study and therefore a further three sites needed to be discarded, unless they offered exceptional data to support the research. In the case of this thesis the three discarded sites did not offer anything exceptional when compared to the others and therefore a preliminary synopsis was done to identify the five best sites to use in the research. The synopsis was based on three sets of data; the first data set was simply the amount of activity relating to death as primary posts,101 the second data set was based on the amount of interaction by the network on these posts;102 and the third data set was based upon the number of posts (primary or network based) relating to Christianity, whether explicitly or implied.
1. Introduction
1.1 Research question and working hypothesis
1.2 Structure of chapters
2. Theory and methodology
2.1 Methodology
2.2 General theoretical character
3. Findings, observations and descriptions
3.1 Participant observation
3.2 The core theme – narrative
4. The narrative nature of cyber ritual
4.1 The narrativity of ritual and the rituality of narrative
4.3 Narrative space
4.4 A short critique on the concept of narrative
5. Conclusion
5.1 Brief overview
5.2 Cyber cemeteries as a challenge to traditional Reformed thanatological liturgical praxis
5.3 Suggestions for further research
5.4 Conclusion
6. Bibliography
7. Table of figures
